IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/1465.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

International Comparison of the Sources of Productivity Slowdown 1973 1982

Author

Listed:
  • John F. Helliwell
  • Peter Sturm
  • Gerard Salou

Abstract

This paper uses an integrated model of aggregate supply to analyze the post-1973 slowdown in productivity growth in the seven major OECD economies. Factor substitution, unexpected demand changes, profitability, and inventory disequilibrium all contribute to the explanation, which is based on a three-factor nested aggregate production function, including energy, and postulating Harrod-neutral disembodied technical progress. The model is first applied separately to the seven countries assuming constant (though country-specific) rates of technical progress. This model provides empirical evidence that this rate of progress has in fact slowed down for several of the faster-growing countries, even after adjusting for factor substitution and cyclical factors. The model is therefore re-estimated, and the sources of productivity decline recalculated, on the hypothesis that rates of efficiency growth in other countries are converging to those in the United States.

Suggested Citation

  • John F. Helliwell & Peter Sturm & Gerard Salou, 1984. "International Comparison of the Sources of Productivity Slowdown 1973 1982," NBER Working Papers 1465, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:1465
    Note: ITI IFM
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w1465.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Berndt, Ernst R & Wood, David O, 1979. "Engineering and Econometric Interpretations of Energy-Capital Complementarity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(3), pages 342-354, June.
    2. Michael Bruno, 1984. "Raw Materials, Profits, and the Productivity Slowdown," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 99(1), pages 1-29.
    3. Nordhaus, William D., 1982. "Economic policy in the face of declining productivity growth," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 131-157.
    4. John W. Kendrick & Beatrice N. Vaccara, 1980. "New Developments in Productivity Measurement and Analysis," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number kend80-1, March.
    5. Denison, Edward F, 1983. "The Interruption of Productivity Growth in the United States," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 93(369), pages 56-77, March.
    6. John F. Helliwell, 1984. "Stagflation and Productivity Decline in Canada, 1974-82," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 17(2), pages 191-216, May.
    7. Pentti J.K. Kouri & Jorge Braga de Macedo & Albert J. Viscio, 1982. "Profitability, Employment and Structural Adjustment in France," NBER Working Papers 1005, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Paolo Sylos-Labini, 1984. "Factors Affecting Changes in Productivity," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, M.E. Sharpe, Inc., vol. 6(2), pages 161-179, January.
    9. Christensen, L. R. & Cummings, D. & Jorgenson, D. W., 1981. "Relative productivity levels, 1947-1973 : An international comparison," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 61-94.
    10. Lindbeck, Assar, 1983. "The Recent Slowdowns of Productivity Growth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 93(369), pages 13-34, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. John F. Helliwell & Alan Chung, 1991. "Macroeconomic Convergence: International Transmission of Growth and Technical Progress," NBER Chapters, in: International Economic Transactions: Issues in Measurement and Empirical Research, pages 388-436, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. John F. Helliwell, 1994. "International Growth Linkages: Evidence from Asia and the OECD," NBER Chapters, in: Macroeconomic Linkage: Savings, Exchange Rates, and Capital Flows, pages 7-29, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. LAL, Deepak & van Wijnbergen, Sweder, 1985. "Government deficits, the real interest rate and LDC debt : On global crowding out," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 157-191.
    2. Dale W. Jorgenson, 2007. "Information Technology and the G7 Economies," NBER Chapters, in: Hard-to-Measure Goods and Services: Essays in Honor of Zvi Griliches, pages 325-350, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Dan Ben-David & David H. Papell, 1998. "Slowdowns And Meltdowns: Postwar Growth Evidence From 74 Countries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(4), pages 561-571, November.
    4. Georg Erber ; Alfred Haid, 1991. "Total Factor Productivity in the Federal Republic of Germany (1970- 1989): Results for Mining and Manufacturing Industries," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 33, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Zvi Griliches, 1998. "Comparing Productivity Growth: An Exploration of French and U.S. Industrial and Firm Data," NBER Chapters, in: R&D and Productivity: The Econometric Evidence, pages 157-186, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Kieran P. Donaghy, 1998. "Incomes Policies Revisited," Working Papers 46, Sapienza University of Rome, CIDEI.
    7. John F. Helliwell & Alan Chung, 1991. "Macroeconomic Convergence: International Transmission of Growth and Technical Progress," NBER Chapters, in: International Economic Transactions: Issues in Measurement and Empirical Research, pages 388-436, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Michael Bruno, 1982. "World Shocks, Macroeconomic Response, and the Productivity Puzzle (Rev)," NBER Working Papers 0942, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Georg Erber ; Alfred Haid, 1991. "Totale Faktorproduktivität in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (1970- 1989): Ergebnisse für das produzierende Gewerbe," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 24, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    10. Pascal Petit & Gabriel Tahar, 1989. "Effets productivité et qualité de l'automatisation : une approche macro-économique," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 40(1), pages 35-54.
    11. Peter Harasztosi & Attila Lindner, 2019. "Who Pays for the Minimum Wage?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(8), pages 2693-2727, August.
    12. Schimmelpfennig, Axel, 1998. "The celtic tiger faces the factor price frontier: Labour market adjustment in Ireland," Kiel Working Papers 855, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    13. Richard Harris & John Moffat, 2011. "R&D, Innovation and Exporting," SERC Discussion Papers 0073, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    14. Dixon, Peter B. & Rimmer, Maureen & McDonald, Daina & McDaniel, Christine A. & Balistreri, Edward J. & Johnson, Kyle & Wong, Eina V., 2002. "USAGE: Data and Parameters," Conference papers 331021, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    15. Alberto BUCCI, 2004. "Economic growth in an enlarged Europe: the human capital and R&D dimensions," Departmental Working Papers 2004-22, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    16. Halkos, George E. & Tzeremes, Nickolaos G., 2011. "Oil consumption and economic efficiency: A comparative analysis of advanced, developing and emerging economies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(7), pages 1354-1362, May.
    17. Lecca, Patrizio & Swales, Kim & Turner, Karen, 2011. "An investigation of issues relating to where energy should enter the production function," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 2832-2841.
    18. William Easterly & Ross Levine, 2001. "It's Not Factor Accumulation: Stylized Facts and Growth Models," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 15(2), pages 177-17-219.
    19. Mercedes Gumbau-Albert & Joaquín Maudos, 2006. "Technological activity and productivity in the Spanish regions," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 40(1), pages 55-80, March.
    20. Stern, David I., 1997. "Limits to substitution and irreversibility in production and consumption: A neoclassical interpretation of ecological economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 197-215, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:1465. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.